Word on the Street

Updates to Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection

 60 new plays have been added to Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection! This update brings Audio Drama to 241 plays; when complete, it will have 300 plays, and additional scene-level indexing will be coming in 2011. Some of the new additions include:

• Neil Simon's Barefoot In The Park, starring Eric Stoltz and Laura Linney
• Molière's The Misanthrope starring Kevin Gudahl, Hollis Resnik, and Harry Althaus
• Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest starring James Marsters
• Moisés Kaufman's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde starring Simon Templeman
• Shakespeare's Pericles
• Moss Hart's Light Up the Sky

Also new with this update is Send To Mobile functionality! Now you can take the collection with you by streaming works directly to your mobile device.

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection is available to libraries and educational institutions worldwide. For more information, including free trial and pricing requests, please email [email protected].

New MARC records available

We've released 4 new sets of MARC records, which are currently available for download at http://marc.alexanderstreet.com. As always, our MARC records are freely available. You can also find MARC records for Alexander Street collections on OCLC WorldCat.

New record sets include:

• Latin American Women Writers, supplement 2 - This set contains 133 records with links to 133 sources, in MARC8 format. To date, we've released 428 records for this collection.
• Latino Literature, supplement 1 - This set contains 82 records with links to 82 sources, in MARC8 format. To date, we've released 1,150 records for this collection.
• Dance in Video, supplement 1 - This set contains 147 records with links to 161 works, in both MARC8 and UTF8 formats. To date, we've released 244 records for this collection.
• Alexander Street Literature, supplement 1 - Please note, this supplement is intended for customer who have the full Alexander Street Literature package including drama. The set contains 215 records with links to 215 volumes, in MARC 8 fomat.

You will also find an updated release schedule at http://marc.alexanderstreet.com. Please email [email protected] with any questions or comments.

Black Drama: Second Edition is complete

Over 80 new plays have been added to Black Drama: Second Edition, bringing this online collection to completion. A 2004 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, the collection now contains more than 1,460 plays written by authors from North America, the Caribbean, English-speaking Africa, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the plays in Black Drama: Second Edition are rare, and over 40% are previously unpublished.

Highlights of the latest content update include the unpublished works of:

• George Houston Bass (founder of the Rites and Reason Theatre at Brown University)
• Mustapha Matura
• Paul Boakye
• Kia Corthron
• Gus Edwards
• J.E. Franklin
• Edgar White
• Charlayne Woodard
• Marion McClinton (renowned director of August Wilson's work)

Also included in this final release are plays by:

• Aime Cesaire
• Trevor Rhone
• Roderick Walcott (twin brother of Derek Walcott)
• Austin Bukenya
• Caryl Phillips
• Sterling Houston
• Wole Soyinka

Black Drama: Second Edition is available to libraries and academic institutions worldwide. For more information, including pricing and free trial requests, please email [email protected].

New performances in Theatre in Video

US and Canadian subscribers to Theatre in Video will notice that the online collection was recently updated with 23 new titles. The newly added films come from the Broadway Theatre Archive and include works by Edward Albee, Jean Anouilh, Eugene O’Neill, Lanford Wilson, Arthur Miller, William Saroyan, Neil Simon, Anton Chekhov, Thornton Wilder, and Wendy Wasserstein, among others.

Featured actors include Geraldine Fitzgerald, Linda Hunt, Meryl Streep, Alfre Woodard, John Lithgow, Jeff Daniels, Faye Dunaway, Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Blythe Danner, Olympia Dukakis, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Ralph Richardson.

Titles include Death of a Salesman, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Time of Your Life, Uncommon Women and Others, The Seagull, An Enemy of the People, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, Fifth of July, The Good Doctor, and The Pirates of Penzance.

Customers outside of the US and Canada will see these films added to the collection shortly. For more information on Theatre in Video, and to request a free trial or price quote for your library, please email [email protected].

Using Theatre in Video for teaching and research

In the latest issue of Brock University's Library News, the newsletter of the James A. Gibson Library, Dr. David Fancy discusses his use of Theatre in Video in the classroom and for research. The interview is embedded below, and you can use the controls in the toolbar to zoom in. You can also find the entire newsletter online at http://issuu.com/brocklibrary/docs/newsletterwinter2010.

Free trial access during Hispanic Heritage Month

In conjunction with Cheryl LaGuardia's e-Views blog on LibraryJournal.com, we are offering free trial access to three of our online collections during Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 - Oct. 15).

Enjoy unlimited access to:

• Caribbean Literature
• Latin American Women Writers
• Latino Literature

For access information and login credentials, visit the e-Views blog today.

Today in History: 1930

We're opening access to American History in Video through April 30, 2009 at http://ahivfree.alexanderstreet.com. Through our blog series, Today in History, we'll feature video clips related to historical events occurring on today's date.

For pricing information and institution-wide trial access after the open access period, please email [email protected].

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On this day in 1930, the Production Code was adopted by the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (later renamed the Motion Pictures Association of America). The Code set strict guidelines as to what content was morally acceptable in motion pictures, and was the MPPDA's attempt to avoid government censorship of films. The Production Code was abandoned in 1968 for the current MPAA rating system.

Experience history as never before with American History in Video. Click the image below to view newsreel footage of MPAA spokesman Eric Johnston in streaming video.

Blog Banter

The blogoshere is buzzing with news of Alexander Street.  See what bloggers are saying about our electronic collections.

"Have you ever found a book written a long time ago and thought, 'Times sure have changed…'? Try an entire database"

- The University Library Blog
(University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) on Twentieth Century Advice Literature

"If you’re doing research on the late 1800s and the turn of the century, then you’ll definitely want to check out The Gilded Age. Focusing on the time period of 1865-1902, the collection features primary source documents on hot topics of the time, such as race, immigration and labor. It also includes scholarly commentary to supplement the materials."

- The University Library Blog
(University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) on The Gilded Age

"There is a useful new online library resource available at Dal: Theatre in Video, which hosts a number of film or TV productions of famous plays."

- Dr Nicol's Blog
(Dalhousie University) on Theatre in Video

"Reyes Cardenas’ writings have been published in various places . . . They are available in ebook form from Alexander Street Press."

- Xican@ Poetry Daily
on Latino Literature

You can also learn how students and instructors are using Opera in Video at Wellesley College. Read more on our Music blog.

New MARC Records now available

The complete set of MARC records for Asian American Drama is now available online.  Other recent releases include the MARC records for Twentieth Century North American Drama and The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts.    All available sets of records can be downloaded at http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/marc/.  If you have any questions please see the READ ME file, or contact [email protected].

You can also sign-up to receive email notification when new MARC records become available,

 

New Content in North American Women’s Drama

We are pleased to announce the final release of North American Women’s Drama is now live. This release includes an additional 344 plays, including those of Alice Childress and Marina Irene Fornes.  Many of these works are previously unpublished,  and have not appeared in any format before now.

Other works new to this update include plays by: Kathy Acker, Claudia Allen, Claire Chafee, Paula Cizmar, Darah Cloud, Kia Corthron, Julie Jensen, Elinor Jones, Josephina Lopez, Stephanie Lehmann, Lisa Loomer, Emily Mann, Susan Miller, Toni Press-Coffman, Theresa Rebeck, Elaine Romero, Betty Smith, Susan Yankowitz, and Y. York, among others.

The completed database includes 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights from the 19th century to the present. More than 30% of these plays are previously unpublished, and the database also includes playbills, production photographs and other related ephemera.  Be sure to check out all of the new content at http://wodr.alexanderstreet.com.  If your library does not have access to this resource you may request a free trial.